The Magic Number

As Baltimore is learning, a lot of useful information has been locked up in its own people. About 40% of 311 requests come from city employees. Baltimore touts the way 311 has bolstered cooperation among departments--for example, how police and sanitation officials joined forces to study patterns of illegal dumping and increase prosecutions. But the true collaborative power of 311 is even more fundamental. When a parks-and-recreation employee calls 311 about a missed trash pickup and a water-department staff member calls after spotting a broken sidewalk, they are, in a way, playing the same pivotal role as those thousands of callers in Chicago in 2002 who, without realizing, predicted where West Nile would strike next. At low cost and with little new bureaucracy, 311 callers are helping to build more intelligent, more responsive cities. All with just three little numbers.